


Everything Is Good and Nothing Hurts

by arcstark (QuintessentialNutcase)



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, Hell, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I have nothing against hulk/bruce, I just don't know how to describe him I saw the film once okay, I selected the bits I can accept without crying, I'm Bad At Tagging, I've got a lot of feelings okay, If you haven't seen Endgame yet then that's your problem, It's catharsis okay, JARVIS just wants Tony to get his shit together, Kinda shitty but I welcome feedback, M/M, No Hulk/Bruce, Not Beta Read, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Science Bros, Sort Of, This is literally just my endgame feels, Whatever we're calling him, and summaries, i'm tired okay, ignoring the others defiantly and you can't stop me, no professor hulk, not even proof read, science dads, this is my first fic be kind
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-03
Updated: 2019-06-03
Packaged: 2020-04-07 10:44:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19083430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuintessentialNutcase/pseuds/arcstark
Summary: “Sir, it has now been four days, thirteen hours, and eleven minutes since you left the lab, slept, or consumed anything besides coffee.”In which Tony realises that maybe, just maybe, he can rest after all.





	Everything Is Good and Nothing Hurts

_“Sir, it has now been four days, thirteen hours, and eleven minutes since you left the lab, slept, or consumed anything besides coffee.”_

“J, you’re killing me, gimme the mark eighty-five specs again, I can make this work with the new reactor without modifying the housing unit with minimal jiggery-pokery, I promise.”

_“Well, I suppose we wouldn’t want too much ‘jiggery-pokery’, sir.”_

“Absolutely, now pull up the new dimensions and run the model again.”

_“Sir, I really must suggest once again that you rest and eat before embarking on the next phase.”_

“Did I stutter? Did I raise you back from digital dust to backchat me, J?”

_“I suppose not sir.”_

“Run the model.”

_“Of course sir.”_

~

The common floor was quiet these days, with Nat and Clint revelling in domestic bliss with Laura and the kids, Steve and Barnes in their Brooklyn apartment, Thor off world with the Guardians, and Danvers down in Louisiana most of the time. It was practically only Bruce and Tony left, and after the move back from the compound, or what was left of it, the place seemed especially quiet.

Sure, the kid swung by most afternoons, but at seven thirty what had once buzzed with coffee makers, bacon sizzling, stupid arguments, and the murmuring of Russian between Nat and Barnes, or random equations that spewed from Tony’s brain pre-caffeination, was now deadly still.

In all honesty, he was starting to get a little concerned about Tony. The man hadn’t surfaced for days. Now, Bruce was no stranger to an all-day-and-all-night-er in the lab, sometimes science couldn’t wait, but it was getting ridiculous.

“Hey, JARVIS, how’s Tony doing down there?”

_“He’s soon to be reaching dangerous levels of dehydration, and has severely low blood sugar, although the old arc reactor’s housing unit seems to be adapting to the new modifications with minimal adjustment required.”_

“Silver linings, huh?”

_“Indeed, Dr Banner.”_

“I’ll see what I can do,” Bruce replied, running a hand through his hair.

 A few minutes later, he was walking through the doors of Tony’s lab, two steaming mugs in hand, and one plan in mind.

“Bruce, Bruciebear, babe, honeybunches, have I ever told you that you’re literally the best ever,” he inhaled deeply and pulled the mug towards him without so much as looking away from the calculations on his monitor, chugged half the cup, and then continued to type.

“Hit a roadblock?” Bruce asked, leaning in to look over his shoulder.

“Something like that, there’s a malfunction in the reactor, cuts out in all the models at certain altitudes, it’s like the goddamn icing problem all over again.” He leant back and rubbed his brow with an ink-and-oil-stained hand.

“Have you tried reversing the polarity of the neutron flow?” Bruce suggested, getting a snort in reply.

“Stick to the squishy sciences Bruce. Way too much sci-fi, it’s like Lang and Rhodey all over again with their DeLorean time-travel theories.”

“Or the kid and his battle plans.” A brief chuckle from each of them.

“Gotta hand it to him though, they usually work out okay long-term.”

“You’re not wrong.”

Bruce’s hands had migrated to Tony’s shoulders and began to rub slow circles there, feeling him lean back against them and slowly relax, as he usually did when thinking about the kid, who was still definitely The Kid, and definitely not Their Kid, despite the family dinners with May and that one parent-teacher conference that May was too flu-ed up to go.

“I had an idea for his suit actually, should help him with that glare problem and the sensory overload issue with the lens filters. If you get a minute, you could come and look it over, see if I’ve missed anything.” The slow circles had shifted into a more firm massage.

“J, you can keep these models running all by yourself right?”

_“Of course sir, whatever else did you raise me from digital dust for?”_

“Shout if we get a hit. Let's go fix the kid’s eyes.”

~

In the decaf induced stupor that Tony had rapidly slipped into, he barely noticed that the elevator went to the penthouse rather than Bruce’s lab, and by the time Bruce had poured him into bed, he was in no state to object, let alone get up and make it to the doors.

“Babe, you are a cruel, heartless man.” He muttered into the pillow he found shmushed against his face.

“I’ll make you a real cup when you wake up, promise.”

“I love you so much.”

Bruce let out a chuckle and ran a hand through Tony’s hair.

“Likewise.”

~

Tony awoke to the aroma of coffee beans and steamed milk swimming in the air, and he revelled in it, clinging to the remnants of sleep as the late afternoon sun warmed his eyelids.  He took a moment to assess the situation: he was still wearing jeans and socks, but no shirt or belt; his head felt like a small family of woodpeckers had multiplied exponentially and run out of trees for whatever woodpeckers needed trees for; his stomach had moved beyond hungry into a new territory of nausea and disappointment, in which everything that was not food is scorned and everything that was food is shied away from. On the bright side, upon opening his eyes, he discovered that Bruce was wearing those pants that made his ass look just edible. If he got a code green in those, Tony might just cry a little bit.

“Good morning.” He called towards the kitchenette in the corner, slowly dragging himself out from under the covers and across the room.

“You talking to me or my ass?” Bruce asked, accompanied by a slight wiggle of the hips.

“Can’t it be both?” He replied, wrapping his arms around Bruce’s waist and burying his face into his shoulder, releasing a pleased hum as he did. “You making fancy coffee?”

“I did promise.”

“You’re the best.”

“You’re a danger to your own wellbeing.” Tony snorted at that.

“I mean, you’re not wrong, but neither was Pepper, JARVIS, Rhodey, Happy, my mom, or original Jarvis before you. The more things change…”

“The more you try to chase them. I know how you work Tony, you keep going until you can’t, it isn’t sustainable, you know that.” He poured the steamed milk and foam in a slow swirl around the cup’s rim, creating a delicate spiral of white amongst caramel, before handing it to Tony, who pressed a kiss to his cheek and took it from him.

“I know, honey, I know, but that doesn’t make it any easier, you know that.” He spoke quietly, and more into his cup than to Bruce, steps were slowly taken, but taken, nevertheless.

“How’d you sleep?” Bruce asked after a moment, he hadn’t heard the nightmares but that didn’t mean they hadn’t come.

He was faced with a soft smile from the other man, and a slight nod, his dark hair sticking up on one side, and a slight crust of drool marring the contours of his goatee, he looked ridiculous, all in all, but the soft vulnerability of his expression and the lax, openness of his body language, as he took languid sips from his coffee, and held one hand across his chest, resting on the opposite shoulder, still, reflexively, guarding the scar of the long-gone arc reactor that had once sat there, all created an image of, in Bruce’s mind, and no doubt any others who might look in upon them, perfection.

“Too tired to remember anything too awful. I don’t always get so lucky.”

They sat in silence for a while, sipping coffee side by side at the breakfast bar, ankles and arms pressed together, fingers occasionally brushing over one another’s, until a voice interrupted them.

_“Sir, Dr Banner, Mr Parker has arrived on the premises.”_

“Send him up J.” Tony called, getting up to pull on a shirt from somewhere.

“I’ll make another round.”

As Peter stepped through the elevator doors, Tony took a moment. Sure, he was a little fucked up after everything that had happened over the last decade, sure, he could really do with a holiday, sure, coffee and tinkering weren’t the answer to his problems, but there were definitely worse places to go crazy. He thought this as he watched Bruce and Peter bicker light-heartedly over whether the kid takes his coffee ‘black and bitter like his heart’ or ‘sweet and creamy for the same reasons Peter, stop being so goddamn dramatic’. The trio sat together for the afternoon, and Tony let his guard down for a moment, and he rested between the man he loved and the kid he’d always wanted, trying, and just maybe managing, to be the partner he’d always needed and, hopefully, the father he wished he’d had.

Yeah, he thought, as Peter regaled them with high school drama and Bruce chuckled a long, listening attentively, there are worse places to go crazy.

**Author's Note:**

> My first work in this, or any, fandom, so comment away please, and help me figure out how the hell you write people moving and doing things... action is hard.  
> Many thank for reading. :)  
> Also, gimme a shout if you also want to die every time you hear the word 'rest', or is that just me????


End file.
